But following last year’s cult hit “Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie,” Heidecker has taken his fascination with all things sarcastic to the extreme in “The Comedy.”

The indie movie, directed by Rick Alverson, is an awkward, teeth-gritting tone poem that has more in common with “Five Easy Pieces” than the average slice-of-life feature.

It follows aging hipster Swanson (Heidecker) around New York as he comes to terms with inheriting his father’s considerable estate. He parties hard, emotionally terrorizes innocent souls, goofs with his buddies (including comedy partner Eric Wareheim, LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy, and Gregg Turkington, a.k.a. Neil Hamburger) and generally gives us reasons to wince and shake our heads.

It makes for a stunningly depressing, bleak — and yes, occasionally hilarious — viewing experience that has polarized film festival audiences across the country.

We caught up with Heidecker over the phone in advance of the film’s Friday premiere at East Colfax’s Sie FilmCenter.

Q: This is a bit of a departure from your own comedy projects. What about this movie appealed to you?

A: Well, it just seemed to come out of left field and it was so ambitious and audacious. I talked to the director on the phone for about an hour and liked him and liked what he had to say, we and agreed on a lot of things, so that really drew me in.

Q: What did the director want you to bring to the project?

A: I think he understood I could deliver comedy in a way that can at times be understated and dry and droll, and also we kind of share a similar darkness interest in the uncomfortable side of things. Just from looking at my work I guess he could see that there was an ability to act in a way suited his ideas.

Q: The movie seems to be an especially harsh indictment of white, ironic-minded privilege because it feels so natural. How much of it was improvised?

A: There was no real dialogue written. Really, we just had a discussion about going as deep as we could imagine going in terms of offensiveness and playing with language and button-pushing.

Q: Are you concerned with the line this movie walks in terms of what it’s displaying versus what it’s seemingly endorsing?

A: There was a little bit of wondering about, “How (freaking) awful are we going to make this guy?” Some people who have seen it say he’s totally without redemption, and others are finding light moments of empathy, despite the terrible behavior. So we tried to keep that a little ambiguous and up for debate. We didn’t want to just create a pure sack-of-black-death character. And any character that spews any kind of humor, there’s always some light or energy there. So I think it depends on your tolerance for that kind of stuff. It’s not like we were cutting somebody’s kidney out or burying somebody alive. And it wasn’t necessarily representative of any positions, like, “I really believe in X, Y or Z.” It was just, “What can I say to make you feel weird?” That was always part of what the movie was going to be about.

Q: There were certainly moments where it felt like an extreme version of what you do on your Adult Swim shows.

A: As we say in the “Billion Dollar Movie,” “It’s what we do. It’s who we are.” I was interested in what Rick wanted to tap into, and I saw that in myself and my circle of friends. We took it to a much more severe and disturbing level, of course. We don’t just sit around and behave that cruelly, but there is that level of one-upmanship.

Q: It’s not as harsh a meditation on the topic as, say, “American Psycho.” Do you see this movie being in the tradition of other films, or as a sort of coming-of-middle-age tale?

A: Oh yeah, I mean, “Five Easy Pieces” is a big one. That was sort of an inspiration for Rick. And there’s little tones of “Taxi Driver” and some Altman and Cassavetes movies. There’s these great movies in the ’70s that weren’t really plot-heavy, but more about people and sometimes following an anti-hero — somebody that isn’t the most likable person, but they’re interesting. It’s like “Harold and Maude,” but without the Maude, without the redemption.

Q: You’ve had bit parts in “Bridesmaids,” “The Simpsons” and other big movies and TV shows, but this is your first starring film role. Are you looking to do more?

A: It was a great experience, and I would be open to doing something similar. When I did this there was no conception of what was going to come out of it. The idea that it got into Sundance, frankly, is kind of crazy. And most actors will never have this opportunity to be able to play a character that’s so couched for you and written for you. I’ll probably never have something quite this right-on-the-nose again.

Q: Do you know people like Swanson?

A: I’ll tell you, I’m pretty good at breaking up with friends, and not pursuing friendships when they seem like they’re not going to work. I have a pretty small group of people that I interact with and they’re pretty good people. I lived in Williamsburg (Brooklyn) from 1999 to 2003, and there would certainly be those guys at a party where you’re like, “Excuse me, what do you do again? How do you pay the rent? And why are you being such an asshole?” But you know, there’s a certain amount of credit given to somebody if they’re an asshole, but they’re actually funny as well. There’s a little bit of wiggle room there.

John Wenzel: 303-954-1642, jwenzel@denverpost.com or twitter.com/johntwenzel

John Wenzel is a member of the Now Team, having covered comedy, music, film, books and video games for The Denver Post for more than a decade. As a proud Dayton, Ohio native, his love of Guided by Voices is about equal to his other obsessions, including Peter Jackson's Middle-earth, "Mr. Show" quotes and Onitsuka Tigers.

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